Tropical sea temperatures in the high-latitude South Pacific during the Eocene
- Christopher J. Hollis1,
- Luke Handley2,
- Erica M. Crouch1,
- Hugh E.G. Morgans1,
- Joel A. Baker3,
- John Creech3,
- Katie S. Collins3,
- Samantha J. Gibbs4,
- Matthew Huber5,
- Stefan Schouten6,
- James C. Zachos7 and
- Richard D. Pancost2
- 1GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand
- 2Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
- 3School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
- 4School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
- 5Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
- 6NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), Department of Marine Organic Biogeochemistry, PO Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, Netherlands
- 7Earth Sciences Department, University of California–Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA
Abstract
Sea-surface temperature (SST) estimates of ~30 °C from planktic foraminifera and archaeal membrane lipids in bathyal sediments in the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand, support paleontological evidence for a warm subtropical to tropical climate in the early Eocene high-latitude (55°S) southwest Pacific. Such warm SSTs call into question previous estimates based on oxygen isotopes and present a major challenge to climate modelers. Even under hypergreenhouse conditions (2240 ppm CO2), modeled summer SSTs for the New Zealand region do not exceed 20 °C.
Footnotes
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↵1 GSA Data Repository item 2009029, detailed methods, data tables, and additional figures, is available online at www.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2009.htm, or on request from editing{at}geosociety.org or Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
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- Received 4 June 2008.
- Revision received 15 September 2008.
- Accepted 22 September 2008.
- © 2009 Geological Society of America
